MOSCOW - The UEFA Champions League final will be hosted by Moscow at Luzhniki stadium, it was announced today. Russian soccer officials also intimated that the match would be played on natural grass.
On Wednesday UEFA's executive committee decided that the 84,745-seater stadium would be the venue of the finale of Europe's most prestigious football trophy.
Vyacheslav Koloskov, the honorary president of the Russian Football Union, told local media that the decision to play out the match on natural grass was taken by UEFA. "At UEFA's request the final will be played on natural grass. So we will have the new grass turf laid out at least two months before the May final."
Last month the Luzhniki became the first ground to stage a Champions League match on synthetic turf in the Round 1 game between Spartak Moscow and Sporting Lisbon. That game ended in a 1-1 draw. The stadium, which was built in 1956, has already been involved in WEFA finals after it hosted the 1999 UEFA Cup final. It was also a venue of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Vitaly Mutko, head of the Russian FA was delighted at being chosen to host the final. "All of us - the Moscow authorities, the Russian FA, the Luzhniki management - have carried out a lot of work in modernizing the infrastructure of the arena and presenting our best stadium to the UEFA commission," he said, adding that the final would not disturb the domestic league in any way.
UEFA also announced that Manchester City would host the UEFA Cup final next year.
